sweet cider

noun

See under cider.

cider

[sahy-der]

noun

the juice pressed from apples (or formerly from some other fruit) used for drinking, either before fermentation (sweet cider) or after fermentation (hard cider), or for making applejack, vinegar, etc.

Also British, cy·der.

Origin of cider

1250–1300; Middle English sidre < Middle French < Old French si(s)dre < Late Latin sīcera strong drink < Septuagint Greek sī́kera < Hebrew shēkhār (Levit. 10:9); replacing Middle English sithere < Old French sidre

Related formsci·der·ish, ci·der·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sweet cider

Historical Examples of sweet cider

What made it worse was, the barrel was marked 'sweet-cider vinegar,' after all.
Donald and Dorothy
Mary Mapes Dodge

British Dictionary definitions for sweet cider

cider

cyder

noun

Also called (US): hard cider an alcoholic drink made from the fermented juice of apples

Also called: sweet cider US and Canadian an unfermented drink made from apple juice

Word Origin for cider

C14: from Old French cisdre, via Medieval Latin, from Late Greek sikera strong drink, from Hebrew shēkhār

sweet cider

noun

British cider having a high sugar content

US and Canadian unfermented apple juiceCompare hard cider

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sweet cider

cider

late 13c., from Old French cidre, cire "pear or apple cider" (12c., Modern French cidre), variant of cisdre, from Late Latin sicera, Vulgate rendition of Hebrew shekhar, a word used for any strong drink (translated in Old English as beor, taken untranslated in Septuagint Greek as sikera), related to Arabic sakar "strong drink," sakira "was drunk." Meaning gradually narrowed in English to mean exclusively "fermented drink made from apples," though this sense also was in Old French.